The
front lacing corset is becoming more and more popular and with good
reason, as everyday wear goes, it has always been our favourite corset.
they are so comfortable and easy to wear, under clothes, over clothes,
dress them up, dress them down, wear them to work, even sleep in them if
you are a hard core waist trainer. I personally wore one all day,
every day for years. I hated not wearing one, I felt untidy and
'slouchy', they make you stand taller, hold your head higher and in my
case stopped me from repeating the bad posture habits I had gotten used
to in the studio which cleared my back pain. The only reason I stopped
and don't wear one at the moment is because I'm going through a baby
phase (corsets and pregnancy/early motherhood do not go together at
all!)
I often get asked about the after effects of long term
corset wearing. Historically speaking corsets were worn from a much
younger age than we would ever recommend (we don't recommend regular
wear of a steel boned corset under the age of 16!) and were designed for
a much more intense and progressive waist reduction. Though later on,
particularly towards the end of the Victorian era, diary extracts from
young women reveal more than just a few secretly slipped the stays out
of their corsets to make them more comfortable especially in summer!
Some
people worry that wearing a corset everyday could lead to muscle
wasting or inefficiency if you do want to stop. It crossed my mind that
my back pain could return if I stopped wearing a corset everyday but
the last time I wore a corset was my wedding day nearly two years ago
and the pain I used to get has not returned, I think wearing the corset
for that long made me develop new habits that have stuck rather than
returning to my bad old ways of twisting between machines as I worked.
Even without the back pain I am still very keen to get back in to a
corset and the front lacing will be my first choice.
Here are a few examples of front lacing corsets we have recently had for sale, click on each image for more information.

We
also have a gallery of a small selection of front lacing corsets that
we have made over the years. Click on the image below to have a look:-

I'm sure that most of you have noticed that we have been running a very limited service recently, a lot of you already know that we have had some complications

making one of these... ... and turning it in to one of these...

Violet is learning the ropes and is keen to get involved with the family business so we are now getting back to 'normal' with our new addition to the team. As with all new trainee's it will take a while for her to get to grips with everything so we hope you can bear with her while she takes some time finding her feet.www.boundbyobsession.co.uk

On our recent trip to the "Booth Museum" in brighton where I was looking to be inspired by some Victorian images of flora and forna, I was surprised to see some of the original drawings from Alice in wonderland.

I was so taken with the pictures that I began work on some dresses. The first one of which was an ivory satin with vintage lace trims.

Before I had finished the dress, because we are so often asked for boleros and pashminas, I had started to collect pieces together for a matching garment.

I selected a fine weave cotton for the main fabric as it had just the right weight and texture that I wanted, then I started to work the vintage laces in a similar way to the cream and blue ones I made for my bridesmaids because I really like the effect when it is finished and on.

In total there is about 22 meters of rare and limited stock vintage laces worked on to this pashmina. When the laces were attached, there was still 'something' missing, a detail...beads, bows?

Even though I had worked some narrow mint green satin ribbon in with the lace, I didn't feel that there was enough that tied the pashmina to the dress so I bought the wider ribbon that I had used for the corset to see how I could work that in.

During discussions with a customer about merging some design elements that I have used in the past on previous, separate corsets and working them in to one garment, my mind raced with ideas and inspiration to combine these design aspects in to a new concept.

Although the ideas were coming thick and fast, approaching the finished product was not as simple.

I went back to basics and approached the design from an inspiration perspective, adding one

element at a time, seeing how the colours toned together. Initially I had used some deep burgundy elements which were just too over powering and washed everything else out.

I first thought of the burgundy because it had come up when I was experimenting with the rose appliqué quite some time ago. It had always looked quite stunning with the rose image but never seemed to quite work out with a garment as a whole, I had thought that maybe this time it would have a better effect but it needs to be worked in with some slightly different elements so for the time being, that concept will have to wait in the sidelines again.

The highlights in the rose appliqué made me lean towards paler colours, I was drawn to white and ivory to begin with but the white was too stark in contrast to the rest of the image and some of the other elements I tried to work in. I dropped the white for the time being and tried adding darker shades of ivory and cream. The difference this made to the overall effect was much more appealing.

There was one element that I did have to think very hard about, the very fine, delicate vintage lace running down the sides of the appliqué. It is hard to see in these pictures and it's one of those things where it doesn't show a lot when it is there but it definitely shows a lot when it isn't there so I left it in.

Having spread a huge variety of items across one of the design tables in the studio, I was well armed with vintage lace and buttons to add in, move around and re arrange to get the best feel.

Having decided on a full frame in lace to contrast and complement the lines of the corset, stage one is just about complete. The next stage is to decide on the rest of the corset. Originally I had intended to use hand aged and distressed calico for the outer layer but when it was all laid out on the design table, this crushed cotton had just the slightest apricot warmth to the colour which blended so well with the other elements and added a little more 'je ne sais quoi' to the overall feel so now the rest of the corset will be made with the outer layer of crushed cotton.